14 DAY TRIAL // Who says that HDDs can't compete with Flash-based Solid-state drives? Apparently not Western Digital, that is rumored to be working on a whooping 20K RPM Raptor hard drive. According to several sources inside the hard drive industry, the storage manufacturer is trying to combat the increasing pressure from SSD manufacturers and also to prove that it can still offer high-performance hard disk drives.
With all the talks that have been going on about SSDs and the fact that they are going to be financially affordable in the next year and a half, Western Digital has to find a way to compete with names like Seagate, TDK or Intel, all of which have already taken the first steps into the future. And it appears that the company is putting all of its hopes into the Raptor lineup, which has some of the most high-performance-rated products available on the market.
Although the details are scarce, it is highly probable that the new 20K RPM Raptor be similar to the recently released VelociRaptor. This means that it will come in a 2.5-inch form factor with a custom 3.50-inch housing built around it. Although there are yet no details available regarding the timeframe or even the estimated price tag for one such Raptor, we can speculate that they are going to be priced higher than the company's current VelociRaptor, which can go as high as $340 for the 300GB model.
According to the same sources, Western Digital is currently working on a way of improving the Raptor's noise level. Apparently, the 20K monster is going to be silent, which is by all means impressive. WD is approaching the matter by improving the housing technology, which on the current VelociRaptor only acts as a heatsink.
Flash-based SSD technology can be a better storage solution because of its features that allow it to provide a better power efficiency level, and also a better performance. Unfortunately, SSDs tend to have a shorter lifetime, because they come with limited write cycles.